Field of the Invention
Broadly speaking, this invention relates to an authorization or authentication method in an environment where persons access a computerized system via remote terminals, e.g. in a banking system or in a data base system with restricted access. In many cases, personal identification numbers (PINs) and smartcards, i.e. devices containing a limited processing capability, are used in such computerized applications to help or enable authenticating a human user who has to identify himself/herself to the system.
More particularly, this invention relates to a novel smartcard-based authentication technique using a smartcard that encrypts a running value, e.g. the time, displayed on the card with a secret, cryptographically strong key. A (public) work station and a server compute, transmit and/or encrypt various values to provide a secure channel between the human user and the server.